I'm Radioactive
by gugeta
Summary: Five families, all with a different goal and status in the society of a post-apocalyptic world. Their weapons are their own bodies, laced with something inhuman, more or less in each. A mysterious syndicate Abyss whose experimental work is hidden behind the mask of sellers, ready to provide powerful members to any side. And a boy, still yet to discover his part in this chess board.
1. One Free Boy

His fingers glided over the slightly battered Mp3 player, pressing 'Previous'. It had become a habit, pressing the same button over and over again, no matter whether he appreciated the song or not. 'Radioactive' came up after a few clicks- Elliot came back for the song almost unconsciously by now. Always, always the same one. There were other mixes and several songs with the same or similar titles, but he liked the original Imagine Dragons song the most.

Was it developing a taste for irony, or a simple connection to some of the words sung? No matter whether it was one of the two or both, one thing was certain- it was the piece he blasted into his head the most these days. His roommate didn't exactly always appreciate it, since Elliot's headphones were loud enough to echo through the entirety of the enormous room, but nothing was ever said about it. Everyone sought their own entertainment however they could, no matter the limited possibilities.

'Every kid has his own toy', Elliot would sometimes hear others joke about it. When there were others, that is. Slowly, one by one, and sometimes more, they took everyone away. It was sad, of course, as everything alive that existed in the room amounted to family for the boy, the only family he had ever truly known. Or remembered. Nothing was more of a pain than memory alteration his own radioactive blood provided as a side effect.

Elliot surely could say that there was something that let him connect the word 'family' with his inmates. Was it the feeling of love? Knowing you belong to something, like a group, like a circle of humans the same as you? Some vague and often twisted blinks of remembrance would sometimes pass through his mind- it was, according to others, his old memories. But it was never enough to actually discern past in any way.

What he could only remember was this room. Always, always this room. A huge space framed by slightly cracked blue walls and ceiling, with several square chambers built in the middle whose walls extended far upwards in a column-like fashion. Simple beds were pushed to both left and right walls in lines. There weren't even thirty of them, but certainly enough to feel how many people were missing. And things, so many things thrown around- left behind, forgotten or deliberately left as a gift. Elliot picked them up rarely- he felt he was lucky enough to not have his Mp3 taken away. It was filled with thousands of songs of different genres, from metal to classical, old and relatively new. Elliot wasn't exactly sure what year it was, or whether the device was updated to the date he found it. How should he know what is happening outside or even how much time had passed?

_I don't even know how old I am, _he frowned at the memory of one of his family members, a little girl named Lily, deciding that they should all celebrate birthdays. She didn't leave any of the inmates alone until they all had chosen a date, which she marked on her silly handmade calendar her older brother had made for her. The brat kept bugging everyone to participate, patiently counting the days by how many times they had gotten meals. _"That's 8 times, so only one and a third day left till Elliot's birthday!" _she would cheerfully announce with a wide smile, her sharp canine teeth making it look a bit more like a menacing threat rather than a peppy report. Soon everyone had gotten used to celebrating- some out of boredom, some genuinely having formed bonds with each other.

What was the point though? Every single of them knew it wouldn't last forever. Lily was the fifth one to go, and soon enough the tradition died out. And now, when there were only two left, it barely ever rang a bell unless Elliot's eyes would occasionally stumble over the pieces of paper hung on the wall above one of the beds on the opposite of his own.

His gloomy thoughts were interrupted by the only other living being in the place, who was courageous enough to yank the black headphones off Elliot's head. "How many times have I told you not to do that unless you want me to bite your hand off, brat!" he yelled at the grinning bastard that was sitting down on his bed. Oz just put them around his neck and waved him off. "You know very well you won't do that, Elliot," the blonde said it with conviction. He leaned down and scooped a book from his own bed, which was next to Elliot's, and dropped it into his annoyed friend's lap. Elliot's eyes widened.

"Is this the 11th volume!?" he cried and took the velvety treasure into his hands, at first admiring the simple cover and then flipping to the first page eagerly. Oz nodded. "I found it under Gil's bed while you were sleeping," he explained, triumphant over the discovery. "Since I still haven't gone through the 10th, you can have it."

It was truly a wonder that there were in total of 11 volumes of the same book series stashed in their residence- what were the odds of it? But of course, they had various things left for reading, although the stacks of books were scarce in adventure genre. Their custodians probably didn't want anything rebellious to start forming in their heads, resulting in the severe lack of anything interesting left for their imagination. The Holy Knight, though, was most probably deemed as passable- or, that's what both Elliot and Oz had decided. No one really knew what their caretakers' objective was, neither what insinuated a certain chain of strange behaviour. Even the smart ones of their group seemed perplexed and annoyed at the irrationality displayed for them to maul over.

Trying to figure it out didn't do any good in the end, or so it seemed. None of those people were left anymore, even if they were intelligent- all their plans, theories went down the sewer. Oz still liked to imagine a completely mind-blowing escape which, after real hardships and maybe several of them injured, worked out in the end, but Elliot was skeptical.

"Hey, give me your player for a bit," Oz, as soon as he snatched it from Elliot's slightly hesitant hands, started pressing the buttons rapidly, going through the folders of genre, band, artist and album. The order was pretty handy like that, although the owner of the device himself rarely ever had the patience to go through them. He most usually had it on shuffle, unless he wanted to listen to a certain song- which, recently, was always.

The blonde finally settled on the same Norwegian guy who once won some sort of a contest. At least that's what you could figure out by some of the longer titles. He turned the music on maximum volume, letting the sounds of a violin plunk throughout the room. "The last thing I ever wanted was for you to get obsessed with this sappy gull," Elliot sourly remarked, pushing himself back against the stiff pillow. Sharing things between each other was the norm, although it got pretty irritating when Oz found a new romantic or chipper song to grate Elliot's brains with.

"Says the one who feels the need to blast the word 'radioactive' into his head until it's permanently carved into his brain," the boy replied, jumping back on his bed. One thing Oz didn't have trouble with was jumping both short and long lengths with ease. His genetic code altered to add up rabbit qualities to some of his features and abilities was most probably the case here. At least being so short definitely wasn't something that provided help.

Instead of answering, Elliot threw the first thing he grabbed from the floor straight at Oz's head. The blonde caught it- or, rather, the object was pierced by his long sharp nails.

"Don't catch it with your right hand!" Elliot snapped, staring at the poor impaled plush toy- Lily's favourite. Oz carefully removed it, looking at the holes with a scrunched up face.

"Shouldn't I be saying 'Don't throw things at me' instead? By now it's become a simple reflex!" he put the inanimate creature next to him. Only tossing a single 'fuck off', Elliot focused on the book instead. Reading the volumes one after another over and over again had gotten a bit boring, so the new adventures of the courageous noble Edwin and his stupid servant Edgar were refreshing. Everything was so interesting: the suspenseful story, action scenes and a brave and honourable character that the boy idolized replaced the lack of it all in his own life.

Being the mediocre reader, Elliot had only finished around 30 pages when he picked up the faint, but unmistakable sound of the door opening far away. He tensed, glancing at Oz; the blonde was up as well, straight as a chord, his eyes painfully aware of what that meant. No one ever really came into the room- all their food was served through a rectangular hole that opened up like a drawer. That is, no one ever, unless it was time to go to the Meltdown chambers.

"They can't be serious," Elliot said in sotto voice, which was rightfully irate. Both of them already had gone through all the stages recently- making them go back so soon would be plain murder. His bones still ached, and he knew Oz was no better. Although, it wouldn't be surprising if they finally decided to stop wasting time and money on them, and just kill off their lab rats without one ounce of chagrin bothering them. It wasn't human. Nothing about them was.

Some time passed until the coated party reached them. Their white clothing, fully sealing their bodies with the rubber material, fitted in very nicely with the surroundings. That couldn't be said about the remaining, and usually most important part of a person's body- their faces, hidden beneath brownish green masks that enveloped their heads, made them look like deformed dolls. And really, who knew- not like the habitants they came to examine could judge someone based on their appearance only. Not one knew how a normal body was even supposed to look like, as the mutations mangling their bodies were the customary.

Their outer appearance wasn't what made them so threatening, though. Elliot instinctively reached for something to defend himself with, or anything that could delay at least a moment of what's to come, but detected nothing on his bed besides the book. That would barely do any damage, or help him ward off those beings. An orange was thrown on both occupied beds, startling the boys more than a simple fruit should have.

"Eat."

Slowly picking up and scraping his neat round shaped nails along the orange skin was just another way to try and let the seconds go by. Elliot slightly nervously dug into the soft fruit, peeling off a small patch until it tore by itself. Then, repeat. Gilbert, one of the closest people to both Oz and him, used to be able to make a beautiful, seamless orange spiral in one go. That is, until they all started hating any kind of fruit.

Another piece. He dropped them on the bed, one by one. Through his fingers slowly started flowing and dripping on the sheets the juice of a luscious treat their caretakers gave them in order to stimulate certain factors in their bodies. Irritating orange bits stuck under Elliot's nails, and the feeling of everything around him getting sticky annoyed him. But not enough to make him move faster. He cast a quick glance at Oz. The blonde wasn't doing too well as he could barely ever do any delicate task with his monstrous hand, and shaking only worsened the process.

Finally, the orange was freed from its protection. Was that some sort of analogy? That no one cared about what happened to the shell they lived in, as long as their insides were still tasty enough to analyse and experiment with? _Stress is screwing with my head again, _Elliot wryly thought. He might have cursed loudly if it weren't for the constant reminder that soon he will be in various kinds and levels of pain. The boy pulled one wedge from the others and put it in his mouth, slowly chewing the sourly sweet fruit.

He finished first, which normally meant he went in first together with most of the masked group while Oz would be left in supervision of two or three others. This, however, wasn't the case this time- they all continued waiting in silence while the second orange was sloppily dealt with as well.

"BBR, come with us." A smooth voice which belonged to one of the examiners ordered. There was no doubt now- those three letters referred to Oz's personal mutation code.

The blonde got up, his relatively small body trembling barely visibly, and went to the first column followed by three of the whitely encased so called 'scientists'. A door, soundlessly opening, let them in and then closed, looking like a mouth of a hungry metal monster, still greedy after so long. Oz didn't look back not once, didn't search for assurance in his friend's eyes and words. It was one of the few things he claimed was left for him after everyone else was gone and pain still here after such a big amount of time. And that left Elliot worried, more than ever- it felt like the end. The tip of a rope they've been balancing on for so long.

The ground shaking, just a bit. Muffled bangs. Yelling, slowly scaling into shrieking. Silence. The same cycle, in a different sequence. An unearthly howl, which ever so rarely escaped throughout Oz's turn over the years. Silence. Elliot wanted to grab his headphones, but wasn't allowed to move an inch from his own bed. His hands were repugnantly sticky; it felt a bit warmer in the room- which was impossible, as it was kept at neither hot or warm nor chilly or cold temperature. His mouth was full of saliva, the juicy taste still lingering on tongue, on the insides of cheeks, on teeth. He wanted to spit it all out, preferably straight at the only inhuman beings in this room.

"Why are you doing this? Wasn't it enough already the previous time?" Elliot growled instead. When no one answered, he swore loudly. "We are not fucking emotionless! What did you do to others? What will you do to _us_? There are only two of your precious specimens left, so you think you can just drain everything you assholes need from us and then leave us to die!?" he stood up, strength of voice sinking heavily down- questioning, blaming. Elliot knew this will end badly, but it didn't matter by now. It was either let yourself fall down or try and grab the loose rope.

He was restricted immediately: after one word to his associate, they pinned him to the ground, not sparing a few powerful strikes to his head and back who would've been enough to knock a normal person out. The boy let out another growl, and struggled with no success for some time, until he felt too strained to move. This will definitely prove to be a kickback when it's his turn, but Elliot couldn't care less about it at the moment. All he wanted was to be able to somehow change it. A move which, unfortunately, was impossible for a single pawn to perform.

The procedures took somewhere around a few hours. Through this whole time, Elliot lied on the ground, his face pressed to it in a somewhat degrading manner. The boy was getting stiff, and he breathed out in relief when the weight was lifted off from his body upon the sound of the door opening again. He shot up and riveted his stare at the people coming out, frantically searching for Oz. But the blonde wasn't walking among them- the scientists were dragging him out, aiming towards the exit.

_He can't be… _Elliot's face relaxed for a moment when he saw his friend's head lift up a bit, but soon he began panicking. _They're taking him away— no, he won't come back if they leave!_

Elliot's sudden sprint towards the retreating three figures was stopped about halfway. "Get up, you damn shorty! Don't let them do this, not again- we said we wouldn't give up, no matter what! Keep your damn word!" he yelled, frantically resisting the hands that tried to grab him. But Oz didn't respond. It made Elliot only more furious, and he, with all the strength he could muster up, kicked one of the masked beings in the pelvis. A cracking sound echoed together with Elliot's shouts. The person sank on the ground, not letting out a single cry of pain. The enraged boy expected for the others to immediately help or at least check on their accomplice, but they only took the chance on finally seizing a hold on Elliot. They pulled him straight to the Meltdown.

The first of the four chambers was painted in an olive green colour, like someone had thrown up broccoli all over it and didn't bother cleaning it all up. It reminded of pain only. Seven chairs stood next to the left wall built straight into it- each of them had different restrictions, from simple belts to thick metal cuffs on them. All of them were separately designed to attend to varying size proportions. Elliot was taken to the first one and forcibly made to sit down.

He wanted to stand up, but one of the scientists quickly clasped the solid bracelets around his hands, then feet and neck. Meanwhile, another wheeled a grey trolley right next to them. Elliot hated the Weakness room the most. All the inmates would call the chairs 'thrones of a king', although such names seemed stupid once you were on it yourself. "We are now commencing tests on the lack of immunity to different actions and substances. WK, testing substance number 122, acid extracted from a mutation," a muffled voice came from one of the masks. They opened a slim beaker and poured the white liquid on Elliot's left arm.

A frown formed on his face, but he only grit his teeth. The pain was searing into him, it burned, it itched, it actually hurt. A feeling like this hadn't visited his skin since that one time they poured gasoline over his hand and set it on fire. Elliot twisted around, trying to escape from the metal, but it only hurt more. "The substance was able to affect the subject's nerve system, but the hardened skin only reddened in places the substance was poured on."

"Explain right now, you bastards!" he started yelling again. "Where are you taking Oz? Where did you take others? What is the whole point of this!?" Elliot shouted over all other words said by his tormentors, but clammed up once another liquid was dumped on his arm. He would never give the pleasure of hearing him shout, never. The numbers it truly ever hurt for Elliot were scarce, but the exhaustion of being worked with for more than anyone else was bad on its own.

"The subject's blood pulse is raised to mild hypertension because of exterior reasons. WK will now be transferred to final Meltdown room, skipping room two and three."

"_You still haven't been in the chambers, right. They call it Meltdown in general, but it's only the final room that the word is meant for. When our blood pressure is raised on a certain level, they drag our body there and lock us up, watching from an undetectable camera hidden somewhere there. We then, well, have an actual meltdown."_

The room itself was the same as ever- small, red and as full of horrible memories. Elliot's eyes hurt from the bright colour which he was soon pushed into. The door behind him closed down and didn't open no matter how many times the boy banged on it. He left quite an indent, but there was no point on keeping up. "Shitheads," Elliot growled.

There wasn't a worse time to be angry, knowing that such an emotion will make it more painful. The entirety of this room was meant to irritate him, to fasten the blood flowing through his veins enough for it to make his body switch to a protective mode the mutation granted. As soon as Elliot would change into this mode, the radioactive parts, laced together with his skin, muscle and bones, would heat up in the process and make it excruciating for the body, granting only a specific type of defense for the person with the price being the highest amount of pain ever possible to achieve.

Nowhere else was there to stare at but the red. It was everywhere, not a single patch or line was different. Elliot sat down on the ground, trying his best to calm down. A task not easy for a hothead like him, and on such circumstances which practically screamed 'just have a meltdown already and be done with it!'. Maybe he really should? It will probably happen, sooner or later, and they would not let Elliot out until then. But it wasn't like he could control any of this. Or actually want to give up so easily.

He started counting the time. Five seconds. Ten seconds. Fifteen seconds. Twenty seconds. One minute. Two. Three. Four. Four minutes and a second. Four minutes and two seconds. Elliot wasn't relatively sure if he was counting slow or fast enough, but why the hell should it even matter? The red protruded through his eyes straight into his brain, the sharpness of it leaving a forming a throbbing pain in his head. The boy's eyes were probably one of his weak spots, although the scientists hadn't ever touched them yet. It was probably already noted down right from the first time, when he covered his eyes the moment this exact unknown feeling of pain reached him.

Around ten minutes passed and Elliot was about to give up and kick the door until either it gave in or he had the damn meltdown already when he heard muffled noises from outside. _What are they doing now?_ He stood up and came closer to listen. Such a thing never happened. Everything was specifically quiet so that the 'subject' would soon blow down if not from anger, then from the madness of being with their own thoughts. It didn't work on a lot of them, but it was kept so anyways. Which is why Elliot knew something was up.

He only had a second to jump back before the door was sent flying into the wall. Elliot widened his eyes at the boy who came in like it was the most casual thing ever. The short, long haired stranger looked around until he spotted Elliot, staring at him for a few moments. The one who felt being scrutinized by unfamiliar figure, suddenly became extremely aware of how he looked like- grey hair, messy and unkempt, white complexion hidden only because of the room's colour, the scruffy clothes that were too big for him and, of course, thin metal plates that covered his joints like some sort of rings. The boy nodded.

"So there was someone in here, after all. Come with me." He turned on his heels and walked out of the room just as light-paced as he had gone in.

"Wait, who the hell are you? How did you get in here?" Elliot shouted and ran after the guy, almost tripping over the bodies on the ground. He looked closer- it was the masked tormentors. They showed no signs of life whatsoever. Some feeling formed in Elliot, and it felt unexpectedly relieving, although such an emotion was weird to have when thinking about someone's death.

"I got in through the door, I thought that was obvious," the long haired intruder brought Elliot back from his thoughts and made him shoot up as to not lose sight of the retreating back. "As for who I am… well, you could say I am, in a way, your saviour."

Both of them came back to the huge space of calming blue. Elliot saw that the exit had been literally blown out as faint traces of smoke still rose from the crumbling hole. _Did he actually do this just in order to get in?!_

"We'll be leaving this place, so it would be considerably precious time I'm giving you to take whatever you want," a sigh came from the short 'saviour' of his. Elliot frowned at the attitude he was being given, but he himself wanted to escape as soon as he can himself, so the retort which was already formed and waiting, was left behind his twisted lips.

Elliot immediately ran to Oz's bed and grabbed his headphones together with the MP3 hanging on the other side of the cord, before taking a glance at the rest of the bed: still messy, with an open book thrown on it, pieces of the orange skin laying around and the black hat he kept close since Gilbert was taken away. Gritting his teeth, he reached out for it, then came back to the one who was waiting for him.

They advanced into the darkness in silence. Besides a few split roads, everything went in a straight, gradually rising pathway dimly illuminated by a few green square lamps hung on the walls. Sometimes Elliot would have to overstep a body lying on the floor. _How many people were killed while doing this? Was this just an attack? Or did they come here to rescue us? What if they'll just take me to another place like this, or kill me?_ A ton of questions swirled in his head. Finally, when they reached another hole, he stopped in his tracks.

"Are you going to explain what is going on here?" Elliot demanded. If he would not answer it or even do it but with an unfavourable outcome for him, Elliot was more than ready to take the stranger on in a fight.

"Didn't I say already? We're rescuing you." the boy replied, peeking out through the hole. "Ah, Lily- have you finished searching the other levels?" he asked the orange haired girl who popped up right before them.

Elliot stared at the scene unbelievably. "Lily!?" he managed to exclaim before she dashed right at him in order to give the boy one big hug. She was just the same as ever, although a bit taller and fuller, but no one could mistake her toothy grin and the black, sharp blade-like protrusions coming out from both sides of her cheeks.

"Oh Elliot, I missed you so much! I am so glad we weren't too late to find you!" she started pulling him by his hand. "Leo, this is Elliot, remember, I told you about him!" the chipper tone, directed at the long haired boy, seemed to leave a small amused smile on the receiver's face.

"Yes Lily, I remember. But we have to escape now- soon enough, Pandora will arrive to investigate the meaning of explosions, and we certainly don't want to be found among the bodies."

"Wait, what about Oz? Lily, did you find Oz in here? We can't leave without finding him first!" Elliot snapped, pulling his hand back to stop the short girl from dragging him any further.

"He was taken by that mean Rainsworth family before we could understand what was going on. It's so unfair that they got dibs on Oz first!" she huffed. Leo, upon seeing Elliot's confused face, sighed and jumped through the hole.

"We'll explain everything later. Now's not the best time to argue- what do you think they will do to you, lonesome survivor in a sea of dead people? You're in just as much trouble as us now."

There was no choice left, and Elliot realized that. He clutched his two belongings closer to himself, and followed the two red cloaked figures out into a world he had completely no formed image of.

* * *

**Author Notes: This might be Elliot/Leo, I still haven't decided. I hope some scenes let you understand at least a bit of how long the times passes when you're not free; it reminds me of a recent movie a person recommended to me. Until next time.**


	2. Two Can Keep A Secret

"I am completely sick of this!"

"It only happened twice, Elliot. No need to overreact."

"I will _not_ tolerate being a human shield just for the _hell of it!"_

"It didn't even scratch you, and the guy didn't know who he was shooting at. Stop being a drama queen."

Elliot abruptly stopped in place and turned to glare at his companion.

"You know what- fuck you, Leo. I'm going out," the boy forced out through his teeth and stomped away. It was just absurd, how everyone seemed perfectly normal with what they did- not only treating themselves as weapons of defensive function, but using their so called 'powers' to kill without a second thought. Of course, he should've known what he was leaving with the moment he saw the first dead body- the Baskerville family wasn't one to follow rules.

_It's not like I had much of a choice, _he angrily thought as he walked further and further away from the house he was currently residing in- surprisingly clean and well-kept, even if the dark red colour of it reminded too much of blood when looked at from afar. It was surrounded by a stone wall, and he had to deal with the guard at the gateway, which made him even more annoyed. It's not like he didn't understand the necessity of it, especially when Leo, the current heir to the family, explained what they exactly do. He exited into the town, with no actual aim in his mind.

A bald woman, sitting on the ground, raised both her eyes and voice when Elliot passed by. She was leaning on the wall, and looked even worse than most of the few people who were walking down the filthy street. Elliot shook his head at her desperate plea for any little amount of money he could spare her and the children that had lost a father recently. His expensive looking clothes, consisting of a clean shirt, hoodie, jeans and actual headphones left an impression of a wealthy person- the boy didn't actually get any money to his own disposal. The woman's hopeful gaze faded, and she slumped back, bringing closer the rags she was wearing to her body, trying to save as much warmth as possible.

It was horrible. The world Elliot so longed to explore was simply horrible. He expected everything, if not perfectly the same, at least a bit similar to the worlds he read about in books and heard about from his family back in the underground facility they were kept in. A bustling town full of bustling people, each taking care of their own business, forests and plains overflowing with flowers and animals, beautiful lakes- all those images had still swirled in his head. Unfortunately, his quiet excitement was killed immediately upon entering the grey block of real life.

There was nothing extravagant about a life for the humans who survived the actual Apocalypse itself. In retrospect, there weren't that many left. More than half of Earth's population was wiped out by a nuclear war; the rest had to live in constant fear of radiation possibilities such as the gas both lingering in air and residing in the ground, rain and objects that had been affected by the often deadly material, including human bodies. That's what the Baskervilles were officially responsible for- disposing of people affected by the radioactive particles from external reasons and burning the bodies so it wouldn't spread.

Sometimes a little watch-like device could be noticed on a stranger's wrist- Elliot knew now that it was a radiation detector, and that not everyone could afford it. Another powerful family by the name of Barma produced technologies needed to survive in these broken, poisonous lands. Along with the detector, such everyday gear as distillatory water funnel or gas masks was popular among what he had seen already. The gas masks disturbed the boy. They reminded him too much of what he had to go through for his whole accessible memory period.

He obviously didn't need anything like that. Sure, maybe drinking polluted water wasn't the tastiest thing (he tried it once, only to have others laugh at his face), but otherwise the radiation had no effect on him. It would be a surprise if it did. Elliot often just wanted to give all the damn devices he had on himself to those who actually needed it, but Leo forbade it on account that he needed to blend it with the crowd. His hoodie was an addition to the disguise, covering the metal plates that were attached to his arm and leg joints.

From the moment he was brought to his current residence, Elliot had to learn a lot of things. The duties of a teacher were left for Fang, Lily's older brother and yet another mutant that was imprisoned together with them all. He was the second to go- the Baskervilles took him in after he was deemed worthless by the syndicate known as Abyss who were the ones that kept them all as pets in their laboratory. Along with him, Doug tagged along. They both had enough time to learn everything about the current world during the two years Elliot hadn't seen them.

The first subject they tackled was history, and then learning how to use simple objects for the purpose they were created for. Among those things were weapons of different ranges. Of course, Elliot couldn't say it out loud, but using a sword was exciting for him- it reminded the boy of The Holy Knight. Guns, less so. Still, nothing was less disturbing than practicing how to utilize his hard skin in more ways than mere defence.

On top of all that, Fang tried his best to describe the current situation of the country Elliot asked for. What the boy managed to get from the brief and often vague explanations were the basics only: how five main families controlled the country they were currently in, and that no one wanted to explain it in full detail to him. It annoyed Elliot to no end, but the warning he once got was enough. _"Don't poke your nose into things that aren't meant for you, boy,"_ Lottie, yet another inmate of the laboratory, told him once with an unusually serious face.

Elliot looked around and found himself in the same place again. It was an abandoned part of the town, where no one came because of the fumes that shot out of the earth unexpectedly. The first time he had gotten here, some old man, in exchange to an apple Elliot had, told him stories of inhuman beings wandering around, stopping only to feed on human flesh. He then cursed everyone who 'had the filthy mutant blood!' and left Elliot feeling extremely aware of the society that didn't welcome such beings as him.

At least he knew no one would catch him here. Only a few buildings were intact, ground covered by the rubbles of the rest. No wildlife sprouted in here as well, only the sounds of humanity replaced by eerie silence. Dried blood splattered across the ground and walls was the only indication of someone else besides him ever walking between these forgotten ruins. Elliot knew he shouldn't walk around all alone in case he was attacked by an Illegal Contractor. It was another type of mutants that, even if less powerful than actual Contractors who were directly affected by radiation, were more aggressive. They often went on murder sprees and were yet another thing the Baskervilles took care of, earning them the title of Reapers.

Those sorts of monsters were what the old man talked about. But Elliot never went out without any sort of a weapon, just like most people in the streets: he could feel a revolver next to his hip, the phone Leo gave him was in the pocket of his hoodie and, most importantly, he could easily crush a stone in his hand as if it was nothing. The only thing about being attacked would be Leo's snarky remarks, which would be unavoidable since no one else but the red cloaked family would collect and dispose of the radioactive bodies no one else could come close to.

One of the crumbling buildings blocked Elliot's path. Instead of going around it, he started climbing the exposed stairs that went up only to the second floor, which was the place from where the upper part of the building had tumbled down on the ground. The site with only one wall left was quite big, probably used for parking or some sort of activities before. Some graffiti, rubbed off and barely visible, was sprayed on both the ground and the grey stack of bricks barely holding each other together, cracked in some places.

Elliot went straight to the semicircle at the opposite side of the wall. It probably used to be a window before the building collapsed, and had fainting paint on it as well. He liked to sit there whenever he could go out for several reasons. One of them was the view displayed before him- the rest of the ruin part of the town and the plains, which ended by vague shapes of mountains looming far away from where he sat. Sometimes you could see the shape of sun in the sky if the clouds weren't as thick as they usually were. He had heard it sometimes actually comes out from its gloomy dark fortress, although these special events only happen once or twice a year at random times.

But Elliot would never go out only for such a thing, although he did expect to sometime catch a glimpse of the actual brightly orange star itself. These deserted remains of civilization provided more comfort to him than the house of his saviours. During this month, he had become friends with Leo, even if the long haired boy was very crass at his own territory at first, especially if Elliot disturbed his reading time (which was almost always). But eventually, the two of them became comfortable with each other's companionship, as Leo admitted to not feeling welcome in this place as well. He was taken in from an orphanage when he was little, and usually left alone in his new home while the head of the Baskervilles cleaned the world from mutants of whom a lot were dangerous to society.

A question about his status of mutation always lingered on Elliot's tongue, but he hadn't had the right time to ask it so far. They both argued a lot, and even brawled, but also found the delight of enjoying similar music. Leo even showed Elliot his piano, let him try it out and even played for him- the albino enjoyed those moments of peace, even if he would eventually get dragged off by one of his previous family members off to study something new. Elliot appreciated the time he spent with Leo far more than anything else. He couldn't detect the same bonds he used to feel towards Fang, Lily, Lottie and Doug- something felt off about the people he used to know that had now donned the blood red cloaks of a feared family.

He grabbed a little rock from the ground and sat down on what was left of the circle window, leaning against the relatively wide inside wall. Soon enough, music started pouring from his headphones- loud enough to reach Elliot's ears. It was something slow, but somewhat disturbing. 'Secret', the words spelled out a title on the MP3. He frowned and skipped several songs until Chopin's composition replaced the silence instead.

The rock was strangely smooth and egg- shaped, with pink veins carving the grey surface. Elliot had never seen such a pretty thing before. Actually, he didn't really care about rocks. But this one was somehow… different? The boy just couldn't put a finger on it. He started throwing it up in the air, catching it swiftly and gently. As far as he could remember, everything that he touched had to be handled softly, otherwise it would break. His friends would often sigh in exasperation when he would snap a spoon in half or kick something so hard it would be sent flying across the whole blue room. He even broke a bed once, which was disposed of immediately and his trips to the Meltdown chambers since then doubled.

"Damnit," he grumbled as his fingers failed to catch the rock and it flied down to the ground level, hitting something metal in the process. _So much for keeping it. _He decided thatsearching for such a little thing would be a waste of time and picked another, a simple angular piece of cement from the many that littered the entire site.

Soft piano tunes were drowned out by the loud bass beat from his pocket. Elliot quickly fished out his phone and brushed his finger across the screen before the singer could utter out a word.

"I demand you teach me how to change the ringtones on this damn thing or do it yourself!" he yelled into the rectangular device, pale skin of his cheeks rapidly gaining a healthy red shade, which flared up even more once laughter came from the other side.

"_Oh come on, 'Sexyback' is a classic. No need to get so worked up about it." _

Elliot threw the rock far away. "It's embarrassing and you have no right to do such things, and don't you dare give me the 'well it's bought with my money' bullshit!" he continued fuming. There were times he wanted nothing more than to throw something really heavy at Leo. He once did, actually- Leo didn't exactly ever hold himself back as well.

"_If you don't want it, figure out how to use a phone yourself. Pushing aside your anger management problems, it's time to come back. Something came up."_

"And what exactly would that be?" the boy grumbled and sat up straight. It was getting darker- either rain or night was almost upon the town. It was hard to identify something in the sky, but he certainly hoped it wasn't rain.

"_Probably a thing that came up, maybe of some sort. Hurry up."_ With that the caller dropped the line, earning an insult sent towards their direction. Leo's sarcasm got on his nerves so much sometimes. Scratch that, _always_.

Still feeling irritated, Elliot stood up and climbed downstairs, not even trying to hurry. It was probably just Lily annoying the four eyes again, and he needed a bigger, much more fun distraction for the girl instead of himself. His eyes, fixated on nowhere in particular, only had a few seconds to register movement behind a broken window.

_A Contractor-!?_ Elliot drew out his revolver at once, ready to use it if needed. A quiet moment came and went by, but nothing changed in the surroundings. A small cold water drop landed on the boy's head, so did some on the nearby ground. A minute passed but Elliot stood still, waiting for any sign of movement, anything that could betray what the unidentified being's location or intentions were. A quiet curse left his lips and he lowered his hand.

He so far hadn't ever encountered a Contractor by himself, and the only time he saw one was the moment it was sliced horizontally by Lily's claws. The only human thing left about them was that they could be killed, nothing more.

One muffled bang, right behind the wall Elliot was near. His ears picked up a thud, and light footsteps coming closer.

"Long time no see, Elliot." A familiar blonde gave him the same smile Elliot found so fake. The man approached him, with a shiny pistol still in his hands.

"Vincent?! You're still alive? What are you doing here?" Elliot took a step forth. This couldn't be a simple coincidence, such things didn't happen. By the looks of it, Vincent was doing more than well- smartly dressed, with black gloves that hid his mutation well enough. Elliot remembered him as a very uneasy person to be around, and one of the sickliest of them all. He could barely stand sometimes because of reasons he never disclosed to anyone.

"Oh, so you haven't forgotten me. I came to pick you up, since brother seemed very tense about you being gone for so long. Don't worry, I won't mention to anyone about this…situation."

To Elliot's surprise, the man raised his hand to grab his shoulder. "It seems I was just in time before that thing did anything. Although I think it would've broken its teeth while trying to bite into you." He released his grip. "Now, the car is waiting for us right outside of here."

"But how did you-"the boy's sentence was cut off by Vincent, who simply fell down backwards onto the ground. Right. The narcolepsy thing. Elliot had completely forgotten that the blonde could often be found collapsed in random places.

He dragged the unconscious, completely relaxed man back to the border between the ruins and the active part of town, where, just as Vincent had said, a black Mercedes with a driver was waiting. A young girl, who was dressed in a grey sweater dress, helped Elliot put his burden into the car; she then explained that their designated arrival point was the Baskerville house.

Elliot refused the offer of driving together with them, instead insisting he would walk back by himself even in this kind of weather. He didn't really trust Vincent that much- he didn't even explain what happened and how. Of course, he couldn't entirely be sure he wasn't about to. _Damn that weird behaviour of his._

He expected the blonde to be up and ready to answer everything once he was back. Vincent couldn't possibly have separated from Gilbert, his actual brother, unless he died. The boy hated being in the dark about all of this. He was one of them, wasn't he? But it seemed, even when he was finally outside, his position was only moved by someone behind all of this.

Completely drenched and feeling annoyed, Elliot noticed the woman from before was gone from the place she rested. Of course, not a single soul was out, since no water coming from those grey and black clouds could possibly be healthy for a normal human. Two cars did show up, but besides that, nothing. The boy felt cold.

The guard let him in without a word. It was hard to decide whether that was a good sign or a bad sign, or not a sign at all. The lights on in the whole house made it look welcoming and cheerful, which was impossible for a few reasons. No one wasted so much energy for completely no reason and so instead used candles. Also, such a gathering of fireflies would definitely attract unwelcomed guests, be they human or not.

Then again, a rich family could afford to take such risks. A bit further, after passing across the muddy courtyard, the car he was offered to take was parked near the house itself. It wasn't surprising that they came faster than Elliot, even in this sort of horrible weather. He shook the water out of his hair and went into the warm but empty corridor.

One of the Baskervilles he did not know the name of pointed him towards the living room, where, according to the relatively ordinary man, 'everyone was waiting'. Elliot's usual frown deepened, but he quickly found the party of five in the completely silent room. Only Leo was sitting, with Lottie and Fang at his sides. The other person, dressed completely black, stood near the window, holding an unlit cigarette in his hands. His eyes darted right at the pale boy.

Gilbert had grown quite a bit; he was in his teens when he had left, but he looked like a true man now. Actually, the difference of his looks confused Elliot at first glance. _How much time has passed since he was taken away?_ What seemed like a masquerade mask covering half of his face was a real crow skeleton connected through his skin right to the real, human skull. It had seemingly grown too- the beak had become longer and sharper, and the hole that you could see the man's golden eye through had widened. Or, at least Elliot thought so.

"Elliot, you're finally back." Gilbert took a few steps towards the centre of the room, tucking the cigarette back into the pocket of his pants. Leo shifted in his seat, a smile playing on his lips. Restriction. The albino could feel it in his friend.

"Very eager to escape from here, Nightray?" Lottie ran her fingers through her silky pink hair. Gilbert didn't respond, instead shifting his attention from the soaking wet Elliot back to the Baskerville heir.

"We already talked everything over. Elliot will go with us today." Leo only cocked his head a slight bit at Gilbert's statement, but nodded slowly in the end.

"As long as you keep up to your end of the bargain. A Glen isn't supposed to give away their possessions so easily." Elliot could hear a tinge of sarcasm envelop the word 'possessions', yet still his eyes narrowed at Leo, a red tinge colouring his cheeks.

"Are you telling me you just sell people easily as that!?" the boy yelled out, now having everyone's attention back to him. "I am not some weapon you can just pass around, I will definitely not accept this! I demand explanations from you, damned brat, and you- you think you can just show up after so long? What have you been doing all this time? You left us, you even left Oz behind! Not one word of you being alive for what, five years? Six!? You know what was happening to us and never came! I don't even know where Oz is, he could be dead for all I know-"

"Oz is safe!" Gilbert interrupted Elliot's loud shouts. "And everyone is safe, not one of us is dead- I wouldn't ever forget! Elliot, calm down." A harsher and even commanding tone, coming from the raven head, came through Elliot. He just stared at the man, slowly evening out his breath.

"Fine. You still have a lot to answer and I will force it out of you if I have to. But you," he turned to Leo, "will tell me what happened while I was away, and why are you selling me off."

He could swear a painful expression passed through the boy's face as a twitch of lips, a curtain of bangs falling more to cover the eyes. But quickly enough, his posture changed into that of a statue.

"I am the successor of the family that keeps humanity safe. You think your situation is bad? The Nightrays didn't buy you, they merely paid for your freedom." His tone turned more and more angry. "Go and live your life and don't involve yourself, and be happy you weren't killed for knowing what you know already!"

Leo quickly shot up from the armchair. "Congratulations, Elliot Nightray, on your status. But no family of the Four Houses is welcome here on friendly terms. Collect your things and leave now." Together with Lottie and Doug, who had quietly opened the door, the short boy strode out of the living room, leaving Elliot and Gilbert alone with Fang.

The raven headed mutant let out a strained sigh. "We have no reason to stay here anymore. Let's go, Elliot."

Leo's words still rang in Elliot's ears as he went to the room he stayed at the last month. He had thought of leaving the phone behind, but decided against it the last second. The boy didn't see the short boy anywhere. He could be mistaken, but what the Baskerville's last words sounded almost… childish. Elliot was still pretty frustrated at what was said, therefore he wasn't about to let Leo get out of this easily.

And yet, he left the Baskerville house in the fancy black car without even a proper goodbye. Fang was the only one that said his farewells- Lily was nowhere to be seen, as well as others that Elliot knew. Sitting in the back seat, next to still unconscious Vincent and the quiet girl, he decided on a few things. One, he will find out what is really happening behind the scenes. Second, he will not stay behind while others are taking part.

Third, he will make sure to find out what happened in his past. Sooner or later.


End file.
